The Historic Landmark Commission approved that action in June 2007, along with developers' plans to move the new Macy's building — and the facade — 25 feet to the north at approximately 15 S. Main.

The approved design calls for the new building to be the same height as the facade, leaving the decorative peak atop the facade to stand alone as it did in 1910 — unlike the most recent reconstruction in the 1970s.

The facade was part of the original Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution, which was founded in March 1868.

Martha Sonntag Bradley, a Utah historian and a professor in the University of Utah's College of Architecture and Planning, has called ZCMI "America's first department store," where LDS settlers gathered to sell their goods.

The original ZCMI facade was constructed in three phases in 1876, 1880 and 1901, according to city planning documents. The structure to be re-installed is both a remnant of that facade and a re-creation from the 1970s, when the ZCMI Center was built.

The May Co. purchased the store in 1999 and converted it into a Meier & Frank. In 2006, Federated Department Stores bought May Co., and Utah's Meier & Frank stores — including the downtown location — became Macy's.

City Creek Center is expected to attract 10 million people annually when complete in 2012.

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